I was just wondering if the newer F Series MINIs are reliable? I have read that the R Series are pretty unreliable but curious about the F Series. Are the F Series models that much improved over R Series? I am mostly interested in either the Clubman or Countryman. From what I understand, the only F Series Countryman model is the 2017 so that might be too soon to tell if it's reliable. Have any of you guys needed any repairs or problems with your MINIs? I would appreciate your opinions on this topic.
I think all the current MINIs will be generally reliable. They don't have any faults that don't exist within other brands... Obviously you'll always get the odd problem car, but just keep your fingers crossed that's not you!
As described in many articles about MINI's, it seems like the technicians had a tendency of loosening bolts randomly or only plugging in the wires half way.. That trend seems to have passed now, and from what I've gathered the new MINI's are no worse than a new Jeep for example.. at least in pure statistics.
But as @minicabrio said, any car that gets driven is bound to have some faults pop up here and there.
Remember the new F series is all BMW running gear (more or less) so the reliability issue should be nothing to be concerned with. The R56 petrol engines (N14/N18) weren't the best and were plagued with many faults but I haven't heard anything bad about the F series apart from paintwork rubbing off at the door seals but I'd expect this to have been rectified by now.
As the proud owner's of the Mini R56 SD LCI, we are very pleased with invested money especially when you look underneath the car and then you can see on what the money was spent. Regarding reliability there are a lot of small things that really annoy 60 % electrical and 40% mechanical, but it is not so terrible just annoying. But comparing with our MB C - class the R56 is less refined and in certain details is behind in quality regarding interior. This is Premium Brand so we expect higher quality.
Regarding F series this small 1.5 three-cylinder gasoline engine from engineering point of view is a short-lifetime engine and 2.0 gasoline engine in S and JCW it had some problems with reliability regarding crankshaft.
So the best choice would be 2.0 diesel engine, with regard to reliability and also If you take into account the power/weight ratio as today's Mini are not so mini and people don't take in account that, and than they are surprised that the car is sluggish (you have an elephant with the power of a grasshopper).Torque baby >
Generally, as with most vehicles, it certainly helps if they are serviced regularly.
I always changed the oil in my old R50 every 12 months \ 5000 miles.
This I will also do in my new R56 JCW.
In my opinion, you can't 'over look after' your vehicle......especially if it's your 'pride & joy'!
Well put @spikeyadrian! Its also worth noting that if the car has a TLC package from MINI then there is nothing stopping you changing the oil/ filter in between services yourself. BMW's service interval is too far apart in my opinion...
Yes, I think it is reliable to us. If you can't judge this, you can search on Google to catch much data to prove that.
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